Open Window Emily Rios The sun shines through the open window. Her breath is still. She longs to escape. If only the other side of her bedroom door held promise. The silence signals another binge. It won’t be long until the whiskey sets in. Then her mother will turn into a monster, a soul full of hatred blaming her child for her miserable life.

Mom’s angry; she needs someone to release that anger on. She races to her daughter’s room, but when she opens the door she stand silently in surprise. The room is empty. She walks to the open window and looks up at the shining sun and knows that her daughter has done the one thing she herself never had the courage to do. Her daughter has made the choice to rise up above her wounded life... and run.